A Thousand Cuts
by EldritchSandwich
Summary: Change of Heart Series 17. Yumi and Ulrich's split has made life harder for everyone, and Xana's latest scheme might be murder if the Gang can't pull together…


Ulrich hammered his fist into Odd's palm. Hard. Even with the blocking targets over his hands, the impact made Odd wince. Still, it was better than keeping all that anger bottled up. "Listen, man, I realize it might not be best to bring this up when you're already trying to hit me…" Ulrich threw another punch at the target and looked up, "but I really think you should talk to her."

Ulrich let out a snort of disgust. "About what? About how she and her new _boyfriend_" he punctuated the word with a punch, "are doing?"

"This is stupid, man, just apologize."

Ulrich's fists tightened. "Apologize? For what?"

Odd shrugged. "Well, what did you do wrong?"

Ulrich's eyebrows curled up in indignance. "Nothing!"

"Yeah, you know what nothing means? It means you're too thick to figure it out, which means you should just apologize in general."

"Yeah, great, Odd, because you're the perfect source for advice on girls."

Odd smiled crookedly. "Who's the one with a girlfriend?" Odd collapsed to the floor, stars spinning in front of his eyes. He lifted a finger across his nose. When he pulled it back, it was flecked with red.

Ulrich stepped back, wavering on his feet. "Oh, man, I'm sorry, I…"

As the bigger boy stepped forward to help him up, Odd shrugged and tried to grin. "No, it's better. You've got to take it out on someone."

"Yeah, well, I'd rather just take it out on me, if you don't mind."

Odd threw a towel over his friend's shoulder. "I do mind, okay?" Ulrich wiped the sweat from his face with the towel and tossed it behind him, landing it perfectly in the hamper without so much as a glance back. Odd shook his head; if nothing else, being this angry certainly seemed to make him focused. "You know she's just going with William to get to you."

Ulrich snorted as he headed out of the gym and back toward the courtyard. "Yeah, well it's working."

Ulrich sped up his steps and moved farther down the gray hallway. Odd just shook his head and let him walk.

Aelita nestled closer to Jeremie. There was a little nip in the air, but it certainly wasn't that cold. Jeremie looked down at her and smiled, squeezing her shoulder. Then he looked back out to the courtyard, and to William and Yumi leaning against the trees at the far edge of the park. "I'm lost, Aelita."

The pink-haired girl's eyes flicked up. "What?"

"I don't know what to do. Yumi and Ulrich haven't even looked at each other in two days, if there was a Xana attack…" The spectacled boy looked down into her soft eyes. "We're really lucky that he hasn't made a move lately. I doubt I could even get one of them to show up, let alone get them to work together again…" Jeremie sighed. "I'm supposed to be in charge, I'm supposed to keep everyone together. And I don't know what to do. I'm out of ideas, I'm just…lost."

Aelita nodded. "No one says you have to have all the answers, Jeremie."

Jeremie shook his head. "That's what this whole thing was about. That's the reason they aren't talking to each other anymore. They both thought they had what it took to be in charge. I guess neither one of them did. And maybe…I don't either." Jeremie's eyes shifted down to the cobblestone, tracing dusty cracks beginning to bloom with grass. "Maybe I'm just a nerd sitting at a computer."

Aelita scooted closer to Jeremie, bringing her face level with his. "Maybe." She moved in for one kiss, just a brush of her lips against his. "But you're my nerd sitting at a computer."

Jeremie smiled, then startled as his laptop began to beep. He slid the computer out of his backpack and lifted open the screen. As soon as he did, Aelita saw his features shrivel into a twisted mask of white. "Oh, no. No, no, no…"

…

"Yeah, got it. I'll be right there. Ulrich…well…I'll tell him. Right, I'll do my best." Odd hung up in Jeremie and sprinted down the hall; he managed to catch Ulrich just at the edge of the stairs. "Hey. Jeremie says Xana attack." Ulrich looked askance at Odd, then back down at the ground. "It's okay if you don't fell up to it. Me and Sissi can probably take care of it. Just thought you should—"

"No." Ulrich took his hand off the handrail and stepped back down off the first stair. "We've got a job to do. I didn't cut you any slack for abandoning your post when Ana…and that was a lot worse than this. I'm in."

Odd smiled weakly, slapping his friend on the shoulder and, as they jogged toward the boiler room, trying to separate which parts of that sentence had been insulting.

Sissi met Jeremie and Aelita coming toward the park. "I got your message. What about Ulrich and Yumi?"

Jeremie shrugged. "Odd says Ulrich's with him. They're headed underground now." He cast a nervous glance at Aelita. "I…I haven't called Yumi."

"You don't think she'd help?"

"I don't know."

Sissi flipped out her cell phone as they headed toward the manhole.

Yumi pulled her phone from her back pocket and glanced at the number. She sighed. It had to happen sooner or later. "Hello."

"Hey. It's…"

"Yeah, I know. What do you want?" William looked at Yumi quizically. She pretended not to notice.

"Xana's activated a Tower. We didn't know if you…" Sissi paused. "We need someone to keep an eye out here on Earth."

Yumi's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I get it. Ciao." That was it, then. She wasn't part of the conspiracy anymore. Just a spectator.

William tried to make eye contact. "Who was that?"

Yumi sighed and pulled him closer. "No one."

Jeremie, Sissi, and Aelita swung down to the factory floor. Aelita went ahead to the elevator that Odd and Ulrich had just sent back up, but Jeremie held Sissi's arm back. "If you thought Yumi might help, why didn't you ask her?"

Sissi shrugged, her eyes tilting down to the floor. "She just…she sounded so angry. Like she'd already counted us out."

Jeremie nodded and stepped into the elevator. "We've still got three fighters. We should be fine."

Aelita and Sissi stepped out of the lift when it hit the scanner room, Jeremie's voice piping through the intercom. "Sissi, Ulrich, Odd, you go in first. Once you make sure the area's secure, I'll send Aelita in." The three fighters stepped toward the scanners, Odd and Sissi brushing hands before they entered opposite tubes.

When the scanners were closed, Aelita looked up at the ceiling, as if it would somehow let her see Jeremie on the floor above her. "Jeremie, what do we do if we can't get Yumi to come back?"

"I don't know, Aelita. I don't have all the answers, remember?"

Aelita frowned. "I think you have more of them than you know," she whispered toward the roof.

"Did you say something, Aelita?"

"No, nothing."

Jeremie, up in the control room, shook his head. He'd been asking himself that question, about both of them, and getting Ulrich back for one mission was no guarantee. He sighed. Just a nerd at a computer. "Transfer—Odd. Transfer—Sissi. Transfer—Ulrich. Scanner—Odd. Scanner—Sissi. Scanner—Ulrich. Virtualization."

…

Ulrich faded onto Lyoko, drawing his blade in midair and landing in a crouched fighting stance, just in case. Odd landed next to him, scanning the horizon. Even after the blond's "All clear," Ulrich didn't untense. It took Sissi's hand on his shoulder to make him snap out of combat mode.

"Hey, relax. We need you to be here."

Ulrich shook his head and stood up next to the ninja. "Yeah. I'm sorry, I just…"

She smiled. "I get it. I'm a girly girl, remember? I know all about this kind of stuff." Ulrich forced a smile. "We're always here to talk, you know."

Ulrich sighed. "Yeah, I know."

Aelita materialized in the middle of the three. She looked at Ulrich, his back turned, then at Sissi. The ninja gave her a reassuring nod. The samurai twirled his weapon around and stepped forward across the mountain plateau. "All right, let's get going. We've got a world to save."

"You mean two worlds," Odd chimed in.

Ulrich smiled. "Yeah." He could almost feel like it was normal. Being here made it easier.

Jeremie squinted at the monitor. "Okay, travelers, the Tower's twenty degrees east. Just follow the right fork in the plat…" His eyes shifted to the side monitor, where his alert program had switched on a news broadcast. The sound began to filter in through the speakers.

"…two zoo workers and a visitor were seriously injured as the animal escaped. According to its caretaker, the elephant has never exhibited violent behavior before, and the rampage is totally without precedent. Nonetheless, police and animal control personnel advise extreme caution; if you encounter the animal, assume it to be very dangerous, and try to avoid contact. Caretaker Jane Rous, who is now in critical condition, claims that Artie, a bull African elephant, was eating peacefully until she saw, quote, "a strange flash" in his eyes, at which point he charged the wall of—"

"Jeremie? What's going on up there?"

Jeremie tore his attention away from the news report. "The circus is in town. Just keep heading down that fork, it'll take you right to the Tower. I have to call Yumi."

Yumi's cell phone, sitting on the park bench, began to ring. Glancing at the tall girl leaning over the water fountain, William shrugged and picked up the phone. "Yumi's phone."

Jeremie's nose wrinkled in confusion. "Who…William? I need to talk to Yumi, right now. It's Jeremie."

William looked over to Yumi again, her fists still clenching from the previous phone call from one of her "friends". "I think it's pretty clear that Yumi doesn't want to talk to you anymore. Why don't you just leave her alone, huh?"

"No, wait, William, you don't understand…" Click. Jeremie threw his head back in frustration. "You guys better hurry. I…couldn't reach Yumi. There's an escaped African elephant out there with her name on it."

Ulrich sliced the last hornet in half and gritted his teeth. "On it."

Yumi walked back toward the bench as William layed her phone back on the wooden planks. "Who was that?"

"Jeremie. I told him to go fly a kite."

"Well…what did he want?"

William shrugged. "I don't know. I figured whatever that dweeb had to say couldn't be important."

There was a time when Yumi would have punched him for saying that. Now, she just nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

William kept back for an awkward second. "Listen, I…do you want to go get an ice cream, or something?"

Yumi paused. Ice cream. The park. Ulrich. Trying to kiss the soft custard off the tip of her nose. Moonlight on the grass as they rolled around, giggling. Had it really been that long ago? She sighed. "Yeah, all right." She walked off with William, toward the front of the schoolyard. Smiling, he slipped his arm into hers. She pulled hers away.

…

"Someone should go back and help her!" Sissi glanced a block's laser off her metal bracers, sending it ricocheting into the mist. Odd spun around and fired an arrowhead into the robot.

"But we need everyone here! These uglies just keep coming!"

Ulrich twisted back to face the group as his saber slid through the block that had been trying to flank the group. He sighed. If there was one thing all this had taught him, it was that Yumi could obviously take care of herself. Still… "Okay, the first person who gets devirtualized should go back to school and try to find her."

Sissi turned to face the samurai, a horrified look on her face. "But it could be too late by then!"

Ulrich slid his blade back into the scabbard and calmly began to lead Aelita down the now-cleared pathway. "It's the best we can do."

William handed Yumi the soft-serve cone from his left hand, swirled chocolate and vanilla. She smiled flatly in thanks, but didn't taste it. William had already started on his.

"Listen, Yumi, I was wondering…" She looked up at William; he chuckled and shook his head. "No, forget it."

"No, what?"

William cleared his throat. "Just, you and Ulrich. I mean, you two seem so different. How did you even get…"

Yumi shrugged. "When you fight together, you get pretty close." William creased his eyebrows, and Yumi hurried to correct herself. "Judo. We took the same judo class." William nodded, apparently satisfied, and Yumi breathed a sigh of relief. It hadn't really hit her until now; the boy she was going with didn't know about Lyoko. That was going to be hard to get used to.

William noticed the uneasy expression on her face, the one that seemed to crop up whenever he mentioned not just Ulrich, but any of her old friends. "Look, I'm sorry, I know it's still kind of a sensitive issue…"

"No, it's not that."

"Then what is it?"

Yumi sighed. Odd hadn't told Ana. Whether she was in or not, she didn't have the right. "It's nothing. We've just all…been through a lot together."

William looked her over, shook his head, and began rotating his ice cream cone between his fingers absently. There was something she wasn't telling him. He didn't like it.

Ulrich charged toward the crab with a mad shout, parrying lasers off into the distance. Just in front of the monster he skidded to a stop, launching from the ground with both feet and curling around his sword, driving it into the crab's shell with all his body weight.

As Ulrich landed amid the blinking debris of the monster, Sissi jogged toward him. "Jeremie, any elephant sightings?"

"No, not…wait, traffic camera on Franklin. It just plowed over a minivan."

"Is it heading for the school?"

"It looks like it."

Sissi's eyes bored into Ulrich's. "I might be able to beat it there through the sewers."

Ulrich was prepared to dress her down, but stopped just short. Who was he kidding…look what trying to be in charge had gotten him so far. His gaze faltered from Sissi's. "Jeremie, rematerialize Sissi."

Sissi smiled at him as she blinked away. She knew it.

"Odd, double time. We have to get to the Tower."

Odd nodded and fell into place behind Aelita. "Don't worry, you can always order me around."

Ulrich grimaced. "Shut up."

Odd grinned. "Aye, aye, mon capitan!"

Sissi rode right up to the factory floor, vision still a little blurry. She couldn't help but think this was her fault. If she'd just asked Yumi to come with them…

Sissi shook her head to clear it as she stepped out of the lift. No time. She had work to do.

…

Ulrich spun over the top of the crab and drove his saber into its shell in mid-air. He grunted as he hit the ground. "Jeremie, vehicles?"

"Right. I'm working on it."

Odd levelled his paw and an arrowhead pierced the back of the hornet that had been diving toward Aelita. "Step on it, Einstein! We've got a full house here."

"I think I'm going to head back to school. I've got some homework I forgot about."

Yumi nodded passively as William turned away. She didn't blame him. It wasn't fair keeping this big a secret from him. She was sure he'd be able to handle the truth, but she didn't have the right to make that choice. Not anymore.

Sissi slid to a stop at a corner as her cell phone rang in her back pocket. "Jeremie. Do you know where it's headed?"

Jeremie called up the latest news footage on his side monitor. "The elephant's heading north past the school, toward the city park. Where are you?"

Sissi glanced up at the street signs over her head. "Eighth and Bloom."

"All right, take Bloom to Fourth Avenue, then head east. If you hurry, you might be able to get there before it does."

Sissi nodded and shut off the phone. It was probably only her imagination, but she could have sworn she could hear the tromp of massive feet off in the distance.

Jeremie shut off the news window and finished typing the commands for the vehicles.

Odd shook his head to clear away the tingling sensation of the hornet's laser and jumped backward onto the Overboard as soon as it finished forming. He grinned at the approaching flying robots. "All right, you ugly bugs. Now it's a fair fight."

Ulrich offered his hand and Aelita vaulted onto the Overbike behind him. "Odd, can you hold the hornets here?" he yelled over his shoulder.

The blond cat-boy dove down into the midst of the robots, golden darts sending the group scattering. "Oh, yeah, we're just starting to have fun!"

Ulrich kicked the motorcycle's pedal and shot forward, the sounds of Odd and the hornets exchanging fire fading in the fog. "Jeremie, where's the Tower?"

"Not far. You should be right on top of it in a few seconds."

Ulrich skidded to a stop. What he saw at the end of the platform, instead, was a megatank, already beginning to charge. "Aelita, get down!"

She and the samurai dove in opposite directions as the hemispherical laser sawed the Overbike in half. Aelita scrambled for cover behind the only rock on the platform as Ulrich ran forward, brandishing his sword. "Triangulate!" The three Ulrichs formed a glowing triangle around the spherical monster, which swiveled in confusion trying to distinguish between them. It fired at one of the clones, which blinked away into nothing. It turned to the second Ulrich, which grinned and lunged forward as the monster opened to fire. As the megatank reeled off in its death throes, Ulrich grinned. "Fusion!" Aelita jogged out to meet the samurai, who grinned triumphantly. "Now then, Einstein, where's that Tower?"

"What do you mean? You're standing right next to it."

Ulrich squinted, looking around the small island. The fog was thick, but not that thick. "I don't think so, Jeremie. It's not here."

"He's right." Aelita stepped forward, prodding around the island in case Xana had somehow made the Tower invisible. "There's nothing here."

"Well, how can that be, I'm positive…" Jeremie's speech trailed off as he gazed back at the Holomap and groaned. "Ulrich…look up."

Ulrich's gaze leaned upward. "Oh, you've got to be kidding." Ulrich's eyes followed the spiral of free-floating rocks extending up through the air to a separate island far above them, atop which Ulrich could barely see a red glow. He looked back down at Aelita and winced. "This is going to take a while."

Yumi had just thrown away her ice cream cone, untouched, and decided to head home, when she felt a slight tremor under her feet. She looked up and down the surrounding streets, puzzled, until a massive gray shape tore around the corner and began to charge directly for her. Her eyes widened. Was that an elephant?

…

Ulrich stared up at the spiral of rock that led to the Tower. "Uh, Jeremie, do you think you could bring up the Overwing? I'd rather not try to get up there on foot."

Jeremie was already tapping at the keys madly. "I'm trying, but, um…I think there's something wrong with the code. I'm having trouble…"

"Trouble what?"

"Well…let's just say Xana works in mysterious ways."

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Fine. Do your best." He turned to Aelita. "Do you feel up to a climb?"

Aelita smiled confidently.

Yumi had tried to stay absolutely still; better not to provoke anything if it wasn't Xana. She only realized her error as it began to charge—of course it was Xana. She glanced around; there was the brick wall surrounding an apartment complex on the near side, and a chain link fence around a parking lot across the street.

She was about to break for the wall when something slipped free from the back of her mind. That parking lot. That was where she and Ulrich had gone, when her parents had told her to break it off with him. She squinted, then shook her head as the massive footsteps rolled down the asphalt toward her. No. Not now.

She grabbed for the top of the low wall, but struggled to pull herself over. By the time she managed to scramble onto the wall, the animal was practically on top of her; she dove into the yard of the apartments as its head slammed into the wall with a wet crunch. Yumi stared at the shape cresting the wall in horror, at the flecks of blood on its head. If Xana hadn't been controlling it, the concussion of that impact would have killed the elephant.

Yumi picked herself up, making sure she hadn't broken anything, and broke into a run for the far side of the enclosure. If she could get around to the other side of the wall, where the gate was, she might be able to lose it. Yumi skidded to a stop and her head whipped around as a dry crack resounded across the yard. It had broken thrrough the wall. That shouldn't have been possible. She didn't have time to think as it began to run toward her, tusks lowered.

Aelita grabbed the rim of the next highest platform, and Ulrich pulled her up by the arms. He dared a look down—they were only a quarter of the way up. This was not going well. "Jeremie, how's Odd doing?"

Jeremie glanced at the side panel. "Not well. He's only got ten lifepoints left."

"Hey, don't sell me short, Einstein. Ten's more than I need!" Odd aimed the Overboard down into the center of the swarm, hitting one hornet dead on while a volley of arrows destroyed another. "See, piece of—" The hoverboard dissolved under his feet and, with a shout, Odd crashed to the ground, spinning around barely in time to see the last of the hornets coming. "Shield!" The hornet's acidic spittle sprayed across Odd's energy shield, landing at his feet and sliding off to the sides. "Laser arrow!" The hornet had to come too close in order to use its acid attack—it was an easy target. "Yeah, take that, you overgrown mosquito!"

"Uh, Odd, I hate to cut your celebration short, but there's an overgrown spider heading your way."

Odd backed up, waving his paw across his field of vision, ready to fire. "Where, I don't see…" Odd's words faded as the tarantula's massive laser struck him in the back.

Jeremie winced, then activated the comm. "Ulrich! I hate to rush you, but you've got some serious trouble heading your way."

Yumi didn't have time to dive out of the way—anyway, there was nowhere to go. She could only close her eyes in the split second before…nothing. Before she heard a wet thud. Yumi opened her eyes.

The elephant was still shaking its head groggily; the brick had left a sharp impression in its cheek. "Hey, come here! I'm talking to you!" Yumi and the elephant both turned to look at the source of the sound. Sissi let another brick from the crumbled wall fly as she continued taunting the beast. "What's the matter, Xana, don't think you can take me?" Xana obviously thought he could, since the elephant began to turn around. Sissi threw the last single brick, then leaned over until she could see Yumi, breathless and bleeding from a shallow cut in her forehead. "Run!"

…

"Jeremie, what happened?"

"A tarantula took out Odd. It's headed your way."

Ulrich roared in frustration, then looked up at Aelita and the cyclone of rock above them. "Aelita, go on ahead." The samurai drew his sword and hopped down to the next lowest rock. "I'll see if I can buy you some time."

Yumi glanced around frantically for some way to get herself and Sissi out alive. Her eyes hit upon the alley side of the apartment building and widened. "Sissi, fire escape!" Sissi glanced up at the iron ladder and nodded in agreement.

The elephant was already in the process of turning back to Yumi when she broke for the building. The animal snorted and charged, and Sissi started to circle around the other side. If they were very lucky, they'd both get to the fire escape about the same time, so the elephant wouldn't be able to concentrate on just one target.

The tarantula lumbered into the center of the round platform, head swinging back and forth awkwardly, trying to get a fix on the child with the sword. It didn't see anything, and was about to try to ascend the first floating boulder when it caught a flash of movement. There he was. No…there was another signal. The tarantula didn't understand—there were two of him, peeking over the edges of different boulders. The tarantula's head swung between them for a moment, then it arrived at a positively brilliant solution—it would shoot them both.

The monster leveled its gun arms at the two samurai just as Ulrich threw himself from his position hanging to the edge of the platform and drove his sword down into the tarantula's target.

Yumi was half-way up the ladder when Sissi rounded the corner and stopped cold. Yumi looked down; the elephant had come around the opposite corner the same time Sissi had. And it was closer to the fire escape. It began a charge. "Sissi!"

The shorter girl had nowhere to run. They both knew it. Gritting her teeth, Yumi let go of the ladder as Xana's animal passed underneath.

"Fusion! Jeremie, how's Aelita doing?"

"Almost there."

The giant animal bucked as Yumi landed on its neck, her hands swinging down to hold fast to its ears. Sissi broke to the side, sliding past the rampaging beast as Yumi tried to steer it away from the alley. Sissi jumped for the partially-extended ladder, but she fell short. Yumi tried to keep the animal from turning to her but, with a loud trumpet, it bucked and sent Yumi flying against the wall of the neighboring building with a crack.

Aelita practically jumped onto the uppermost level of the Tower and slammed her hand down on the screen.

…AELITA…

Yumi groaned groggily, and the elephant turned to Sissi, crouched where she had landed after the failed jump.

…CODE…

The elephant snorted and broke into a charge, tusks lowered to Sissi's level.

…LYOKO…

And stopped. It blinked once, confused, then looked at the terrified girl in front of it as if for guidance. Uneasily, Sissi retook her feet and slid along the wall, the animal eyeing her the entire time. When she reached Yumi, barely conscious, she knelt down and smiled painfully. "Hey. Those were some pretty cool moves."

Yumi coughed, and smiled. "Yeah, thanks. I don't think it worked, though. I mean, I can't really feel…"

Sissi shook her head and stroked the older girl's hair. "No, it's okay. We're gonna rewind any second now, just hold on."

Yumi nodded weakly, then looked up, concern tainting the pain on her face. "Hey…am I going to remember this? I mean I'm not…am I going to remember?"

Sissi pulled back and blinked. She hadn't thought about it. "I, I don't know…I mean I don't see—" The curtain of white light slipped over them.

"…or at least go downtown, or something."

Yumi blinked. "Hm?"

William smiled. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes crept over to where the others were seated, across the courtyard. Sissi was staring at her. Yumi met her eyes and nodded slightly, then turned her head back. "Yeah. Fine."

Sissi smiled. "Answers that question."

Jeremie shrugged. "Yeah, it might be a while before the effects of the supercalculator wear off. Or, she might never be able to forget like everyone else. Either way, it doesn't really matter."

Aelita leaned up to look at him, a curious glimmer in her eyes. "And why's that?"

Jeremie smiled. That, he had the answer to. "There's no way she's going to stay away for long."


End file.
